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The Inheritors of the Vow
“Once, long ago, a race of beings ruled the galaxy. They were clever and wise and so, so powerful. Once. Once, their cruelty marked a million worlds and they had full control of their power. Once. And when the time came for them to go, they vowed that they would not die out in this universe, that they would not rule but once. We are the inheritors of that vow. They have taught us cleverness and wisdom, and we have met them with power. We see the cruelty and control and power they held in one hand, and we have one vow: not once.” The Inheritors of the Vow are a species of dark grey-skinned humanoids, taller and broader than a human. Hairless, they are most at home in tropic climates. Inheritors possess capable immune systems; they breathe an air laced with poisons and heavy metals. Long fingers can manipulate small and complicated machines. Their home planet Covenant is home to vast ruins of a long-dead civilization on which much of the Inheritor’s technology and religion is based. Cities are built on the still-standing ruins of unknown obelisks and mausoleums. Chips of rust pile against walls that once bore carvings of star maps. Inheritor technology typically consists of jury-rigged versions of Forefather technology, and the Archeo-scholars assemble a theology of the return of those long-dead. The government of Covenant is a corporatist technocratic futarchy. Every group is represented by a union with leadership selected for technical skill. This leadership cooperates with the ultimate power, the Triadic Council, to determine measures of policy success. Citizens then participate in a prediction market to determine the direction of public policy. The Triadic Council is composed of at least one representative from the Overunion of Scholars, the Overunion of Soldiers, and the Overunion of Scientists. Each union is subsidiary to one of these three Overunions. This current state is the result of historical tumult. It is in the nature of the Inheritors to unify under a collective vision of their race, and the first global authority was established eight hundred years ago as a theocratic empire. Covenant went through several eras of disunification, punctuated by an attempt at federal democracy, two queendoms, a relativist bureaucracy, and a militaristic oligarchy. Three hundred years ago, the current government was established after a many-sided civil war. The Triadic Council was instituted and the Overunions formed, and while there was never abundance there was order and some measure of expression. Forty years ago, there was a thirty year period of increasing hostility between each part of the triad, and for a few years they effectively ruled different thirds of the globe, until a peace was forced by a diplomat-scavenger named Kercekol Star. Since the Declaration of Marble Peace, the Triadic Council only grew in influence. It established the Epol doctrine, claiming that the only way for an empire to succeed is through the careful administration of its resources and efficient flexibility. With this doctrine came the promise that the Inheritors would not call Covenant their grave, even amid fears about failing Forefather infrastructure. The Zenith program was the Inheritor’s first serious attempt to colonize another planet, their system neighbor, Meridian. Zenith One was the inaugural arc, of gilded steel and perfumed power. As the Astronomer’s Union began to scan through their Forefather telescopes for signs of distant life, they discovered sets of coordinates. These coordinates, called the Lifelink Signal, not only indicated signs of life, but that the Forefathers may have thought that in that direction lay the answer to the infrastructure failures.